


Approach

by bonehandledknife (ladywinter), Primarybufferpanel (ArwenLune)



Series: The Mountains Are The Same [29]
Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fanart Welcome, Gen, Honk if you love lizards, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-12
Updated: 2015-11-12
Packaged: 2018-05-01 07:12:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5196932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladywinter/pseuds/bonehandledknife, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenLune/pseuds/Primarybufferpanel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Approach: The nontechnical section of the climb that leads to the technical part of the climb.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>"Mine is faster. Look, bigger legs, right?" </p><p>"It's not the size that matters."</p><p>Max just about breathed his lizard down the wrong pipe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Approach

Dinner was sorghum mash, with roast lizard for the defenders. A luxury when there were so many to feed. The meal hall was filled with the sound of people who couldn't quite believe the siege was over, an intimidating weight that had loomed over them which had been startlingly broken within the span of a day.Noxious was dead, so was Fixer and Lance's group of rebels. The remaining warboys of the war party were camping by the base of the Citadel. They'd had water, and tomorrow a delegation from the council would go down - well guarded - to speak with them.

The tension of the past week had finally passed. A thing everyone had been pushing against disappearing. The mood was…

Max had his arm curled around his bowl, still not really used to eating near other people. His lizard was already half gone when he noticed Austeyr and Rachet were holding theirs up for inspection.

"Mine. Look, bigger legs, right?" Rachet's shoulder was wrapped up, his face still pale with blood loss. He moved slow, a little loopy with whatever the Soundless had given him.

"It's not the size that matters."  
  
Max just about breathed his lizard down the wrong pipe.

"Mine's smaller, so faster."

"Boss, which one d'you think is faster?" Austeyr appealed to Furiosa.

"Can't find out now, can ya?" Ace answered instead. "They's already dead."

"Mine's not dead, it's just restin'," declared Rachet earnestly, and Max choked a little. "It'll be fine in a bit."

"Look, mine moved," Austeyr wiggled the hind leg of his lizard.

Kompass grabbed Austeyr's wrist and moved it toward him, biting off the head of the lizard before Austeyr could withdraw his hand with an indignant squeak.

"Ach you _wanker!_ You bit the head clean off!"

Max surreptitiously crossed his legs.

Kompass tried to grab the other man's hand for another bite.

" _Boys_ ," Furiosa said under her breath, in a tone that immediately squelched the scuffle.

Max hummed, impressed, and she shot him a glance full of amusement.

"Lizard... racing?"

"Reflex competitions."

“They’re, mmmm...”

He hunched over his food a little, not looking at Furiosa.

“They’re not gonna _dance_ , are they?”

“What, the lizards?”

Austeyr whipped his head over and hissed, “Don't _you_ even _start_.” He huffed. "Don't make the Boss listen to that filth. _Pervert._ " He clapped his hands over Furiosa’s ears.

(One of them may have been still holding a headless lizard.)

(Thankfully it was roasted.)

Max watched as Furiosa’s eyes slid over slow, her face immobile; he felt it like a slow growing rumble in the earth.

There was an explosive movement and suddenly Austeyr was flipped off the bench onto his back, landing with an "oof!" and Furiosa was biting the meat off that lizard with a faintly amused air.

"You ate my lizard!" Austeyr said from the ground, tone somewhere half between indignation and laughter.

"And it was _delicious_."

Kompass and Rachet just about suffocated covering up their snorts, and as Furiosa turned to give them an eyebrow, Max saw that oil from the cooked meat was smeared on the side of her jaw, just under her ear.

Max hummed, uncertainly, “Ah you have…” he gestured.

Furiosa turned to look at him.

He tried gesturing more clearly but she just kept _looking_ at him, and he glanced at his hands, and they were dirt-covered where they weren't oil-covered, and wouldn't help at all if he tried wiping it off for her. _Um._

Max looked at the war boys for help but Kompass had gone off for more lizard and Rachet was yelling at him to choose good ones and Austeyr was just watching him pointedly and was no help at all. The Ace was sitting there, eyes narrowed, and Max decided to ignore that because not much he did seemed to change that expression.

“What?” Furiosa prodded.

He gave up and leaned close and paused long enough for her to shove him away but she just kept staring in curiosity. So Max licked the oil off, a smear right under her ear, the taste of roast oil and skin and a bit of grease and the sound of Furiosa breathing, sharply, in.

Max hurriedly leaned back. _Um_.

She was very still for the space of a few seconds, eyes dark, then blinked and reached for her cup. She cleared her throat, mouth pressed against it and look a long drink, eyes staring determinedly away.

“There was. Oil.” He said a bit helplessly.

He tore his gaze away and turned back to the remains of his meal but. It was gone. Max looked up and the tail was disappearing into Austeyr’s mouth, who was giving him a thumbs up. “Waff geffin’ colff,” Austeyr said around his mouthful, “Y’seemef busy.”

Ace was still looking at him. Mouth slanted. Shook his head a little, as if he could not believe Max just let that happen.

Kompass was handing one of the lizards off to Rachet and frowned when he turned back to the table. “Did you just steal off the Wastelander's plate?”

"Max. His name is Max," Austeyr said, still chewing.

Kompass huffed “And your name is _boofhead_ , half his blood is swimming around in the Boss, he needs to refuel.”

He slid a new lizard onto Max's plate. “There, that’s a nice one for ya, large and meaty.”

Austeyr just looked appalled when Max found himself blushing.

Furiosa made a tiny choking sound.

“What?”

Max just covered his face, keeping one hand on his new lizard, eyes closed.

There was a light tug on it that only made him tighten his grip.

 

* * *

 

Max woke to the sound of muffled moaning coming from the... tangle of bodies surrounding him. He wasn't on the ledge, he'd crashed next to Furiosa on on the mattress, and they were surrounded by warboys. And she was moaning.

It wasn’t a _pained_ moan, as such, and he blinked up at the ceiling for a long moment, trying to find the context where this made sense. They'd all spent days running around the Citadel as the tension mounted, trying to be where they were needed; Max and Ace had traded off sticking with Furiosa, trying to stop her from overdoing it, with limited success, especially since Max had to leave her side partway through the siege to aid Rachet. When the siege was finally over and the guard rotation was set, the six of them had had a surreal meal - _surely_ some of his memories could not be correct - and then crashed hard in Furiosa's quarters.

This was the morning after.

“Come on, harder,” he heard Furiosa’s voice next to him, low and breathless. “‘m not gonna break”

Max closed his eyes against the sudden mental images and the brief taste of Furiosa’s skin on his tongue.

“Your ribs might, Boss,” he heard Austeyr say. “Miss Gale would murder me if I hurt you.”

There was a shifting and a muffled, disgruntled moan, and Max risked a look. Furiosa was stretched out on her front, the warboy sitting astride her thighs, kneading her bared upper back.

 _Right,_ it was nothing like he’d imagined. But—

Max looked away, not quite sure this was something he was meant to see. There was something oddly vulnerable about seeing the pale line of her spine under Austeyr's large hands. Then he heard her sigh, and glanced over again.

“Hell, that'd be a kindness,” Austeyr continued, even over Furiosa’s grumbles, “I don't even wanna think about what the Soundless'd do to me if I broke something preventable.”

“...or I,” Ace supplied sleepily from where he lay with his back to the pair. Furiosa swatted at him half-heartedly with her nub, and Ace’s hand came up to keep it pressed against his shoulder.

“An’ I,” Max grunted in agreement. Austeyr shot him a grin.

"See? Gotta keep you in one piece," he said to Furiosa. "Or I'll get chased into the wasteland by an angry mob."

Furiosa huffed at being overruled, subsiding under Austeyr’s hands.

Max hid his grin against his arm, though he wasn't quite sure how to feel.

 

* * *

 

"Ace."

Furiosa sounded so serious, Ace came to attention immediately. Breakfast was winding down but Furiosa had waved everyone back to sitting as she was walking back to the crew’s table after talking with the Tribunes.

She was holding something, raising her voice so that it carried to all in the mess hall, the other voices quieting as she spoke.

"Ace, you’ve done well these past many days, and during the battle. I talked to the council; we’ve decided you deserve this."

She brought up her hand, and he stared at the belt hanger ornament she was offering him. It was a leather backplate and chains, the skull symbol pried off just like she'd been wearing it these past weeks. A murmur grew in the tables around them.

"The Tribunes have commissioned a new symbol, for when the artisans have time to craft. But for now—"

He finally, gingerly, took it from her when her words drifted quiet. On anyone else they would have sounded uncertain.

"Congratulations, Imperator Ace."

“IMPERATOR ACE!” The shout arose from Austeyr and Kompass and Rachet first, and was taken up until it echoed and brightened the room. He could hear Treb and Timpani drum on the tables.

The leather was worn, the chains somehow familiar. He didn't know what to think. He ran his fingers over it and then looked into her face. It felt quiet in the eye of the shouting and celebrations around them.

"Boss, this is _yours_."

That wasn't right, that wasn't right at all. Was she— was she being demoted? No, the Tribunes wouldn't do that, not after she'd practically handed them the Citadel on a platter. Several days ago he might have thought they were simply caring for the Citadel in her absence, until she healed, but Ace saw the way Furiosa constantly stepped back from decisions and from giving input even when she was able to sit in on Council, acting as if she was the Tribunes’ second instead of they being hers. She’d relinquished the right to rule that she’d received from defeating Joe…

 _Was she stepping down even further?_ His eyes grew wide.

"I'll get a new one."

Ace let out a breath. _Right._ They'd always had more than one Imperator, and right now there would be a lot of warboys without a crew. In a situation like this, even a half-life as Imperator might be better than only having one.

"Makin' Kompass your new Ace?"

She nodded, giving him a small grin.

"Boy's gonna shit colours."

Her grin grew wide, and the enormity of this began to sink in. _Imperator_. He'd have to find his own crew. Inspire them like she had inspired him.

"I'll make you proud."

She reached up to pull his head down, lightly butting her forehead against his.

"Always have," she said softly, just for his ears.  

The cheers grew louder, encroaching in their little circle, and Ace looked around as the world rushed back in. He began to be passed through the crowd so that everyone who’d wanted to could put in a word - hands patting him on the back, shoulders, in congratulations - though none of them mattered so much as the touch of approval he’d felt on his forehead.

 

* * *

 

“Look! She made a war boy—”

“But it’s one of _hers_.”

“Doesn’t matter! It’s not that full-life feral that’s been trailing around her, that’s what I’m sayin’, but a _war boy_. One of us, even, _half_ -life, everyone’s seen his tumors—”

“Why d’ya think she’d trust the Citadel to someone who’s gonna die on her?”

“...they did tell us to take off the paint. Said it made us die quicker.” A voice spoke up slowly from the back.

“Think they know something we don’t? That Joe didn’t?”

“Whatever! What I’m _sayin’_ , if ya’ll would just _stop interrupting me_ , is that she picked someone who knows the Citadel, who knows _us_ , and you _know_ how the Council favors that feral. Trusted him with that run to the canyons, has free reign over all the towers? But fair rabid and don’t think he quite knows how to even find his way to aqua-cola.”

“Aint that right. Seen him get turned around in the tunnels and stare off into space muttering when he thinks no one’s around.”

“Ace will speak for us. Appointing him means she just gave warboys more influence, not less."

"Yeah, and he's gonna need a crew."

"You wanna try to…?"

"If a warboy dies unwitnessed, is he still dead? Don't imagine there could be a better Imperator than the Ace. He's a chrome leader."

"True."

"And if you wait, they might decide to make you a greenthumb instead." A tongue clicked impatiently, “I’m not waiting on you two, going to ask him right now. Join me if y’want.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I can't even remember how long we've been looking forward to posting this dinner scene, but it's easily two months. Lizard innuendo is apparently just how we roll, okay?
> 
> Also, shoutout to [ulsae1995](http://ulsae1995.tumblr.com) whose [Imperator](http://ulsae1995.tumblr.com/post/132730933560/60-minutes-imperator-ace-its-me-the-only-one) [Ace](http://ulsae1995.tumblr.com/post/132205524425/90-minutes-imperator-ace-doodle-please-draw-me) artwork made me go all "Pleeeaaase can we?" at Bonehandledknife.


End file.
